Remembering David Eddings

Best-selling fantasy author David Eddings has passed away at the age of 77 according to BBC News.

Inspired by the success of the Lord of the Rings, Eddings penned The Elenium series, which follwed the adventures of crooked-nosed knight Sir Sparhawk.

His wife Leigh, who died two years ago, played a pivotal role in the creation of his work.

Publisher Jane Johnson said Eddings was "a towering force of modern commercial fiction, a master of the epic".

Eddings was known for being old-fashioned in his approach to writing. The author wrote his manuscripts long hand and not via a typewriter or computer according to reports.

His work includes The Belgariad series (5 books, 1982-1984) and The Malloreon series (5 books, 1987-1991), with three related books in the 1990s; The Elenium and The Tamuli (two trilogies, 1989-1994); and The Dreamers series (4 books, 2003-2006). His novels were famous for being long and involved fantasy epics.

""I'm never going to be in danger of getting the Nobel Prize for literature," he said in an interview. "I'm a storyteller, not a prophet. I'm just interested in a good story."

"I am here to teach a generation or two how to read. After they've finished with me and I don't challenge them any more, they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton," he added.